Giorgos Makris is one of our oldest friends in the village. He has a house near ours that he shared with his mother until her death in August 2012. In her latter years she became increasingly confused and forgetful which affected Giorgos' activities radically, making it difficult for him to care for his bees and do all the other things which kept life and limb together. He used to fish but has had no opportunity to do so for some years and a very simple life has been the result.
Not that Giorgos is simple. He it was that recommended a book to me some years ago called The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind!! He has devoted much effort in recent years to scanning and cataloguing photos and negatives of the village and its people, going back to the thirties, to preserve as much information as he can for future generations.
He has two brothers, both of whom have written weighty tomes tracing aspects of life here including local traditional songs and poems, dress, building and architectural techniques, agricultural customs etc. His brother Manolis' book is specifically about events and conditions during the Second World War when the island was occupied, first by the Italians, then the Germans and finally the British.
Large parts of this book are verbatim transcripts of tales told by the locals recalling their own involvement and Giorgos is very keen that some of these be translated into English so that tourists can appreciate the hardships undergone during this time, not omitting some amusing aspects! His nephew started the process. I collaborated with him to translate the first few stories which formed the first edition of this book, reflecting as far as possible the exact tone of the teller. This second edition of the book added further stories, but we have only made a start and will add more to future editions of this book. Some of the stories are more slight than others, some are funny. Some are very sad.
Bob Bowden
Diafani, Karpathos